Show Notes
For decades, a quiet armored truck driver living in Brooklyn ran thousands of guns to the IRA. He was born in Ireland and dedicated to the Republican cause. He was also a committed socialist, who believed the anti-imperial struggle in Ireland was connected to the struggle of African-Americans, Cubans and Vietnamese. When he wasn’t handing out flyers or walking the picket lines, he was running an international arms network which took weapons pilfered from US military bases and smuggled them to IRA volunteers.
But at the height of his success, a federal investigation forced him into the limelight. In the ensuing trial, Irish Republicans made him into a hero, but a question always lingered about his gun running: was the CIA in on it?
Further reading:
The American Connection by Jack Holland
Irish America and the Ulster Conflict by Andrew Wilson
The Trial of the IRA Five by Thomas Fox
Noraid and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1970-1994 by Robert Collins
“The Patriot Game” by Shana Alexander in New York Magazine
The interview with George Harrison was recorded by Matthew Siegfried in 2004. The interviews with Chuck Laverty and Michael Flannery are courtesy of the Tamiment Library at New York University.
More from Foreign Agent: The IRA’s American connection
By the 1990s, a faction of Irish republicans were turning away from militancy and setting their sights on peace. A political future for the campaign would require more money, more lobbying, and even deeper engagement with the United States – though not with Irish Northern Aid, now tainted by its long association with the IRA. Instead, Noraid was wound down, causing splits and divisions that linger to this day.
*Corrected file* Noraid has been portrayed on screen many times, usually in the background of stories about terrorism and gunrunning. While TV shows and movies like Columbo, Patriot Games and The Devil’s Own aren’t exactly high art, they do reveal how the class politics of Irish America were understood (and misrepresented) by Hollywood. In this bonus episode, Nate Lavey takes a look at on-screen IRA gunrunners and their federal agency enemies, as portrayed by the likes of Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Sean Bean.
As the Troubles dragged on, IRA volunteers at the Maze Prison decided to go on hunger strike in 1980 and 1981. Their decision would change everything for the IRA — and for Noraid. The protest garnered sympathy from around the world and sparked outrage in the Irish American community. Noraid rallied outside the British embassy, burned Margaret Thatcher in effigy, and made new in-roads with the American media.
For over 100 years, Irish revolutionaries hoping to drive the British out of Ireland looked to the United States for money and support. They also looked across the Atlantic for new technology that might give them an advantage, including homemade surface-to-air missiles and even the world’s first modern submarine. In this bonus episode, we explore two cases — a century apart — which show just how far Irish republicans would go to take the war into the air and below the waves.
After Bloody Sunday in 1972, Irish Northern Aid saw its power, influence and donations increase dramatically — but a higher profile brought new enemies. Secretly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned its sights on Noraid: auditing their books, cultivating informers and staking out meetings. On the public stage, Irish American politicians like Ted Kennedy, who had once wooed voters with their militant rhetoric against the British, began working to turn the community away from the IRA. An array of powerful actors had finally taken notice and were ready to clamp down. But Noraid had some moves of its own to make.